Tag: Fjord Trends 2018

By A Correspondent

Accenture has released Fjord Trends 2018, its 11th annual report examining seven emergent trends expected to impact business, technology and design in the year ahead.

“Each of our 2018 trends is born out of a fundamental tension – be it a shift, a collision or a parting of ways,” said Mark Curtis, co-founder and chief client officer at Fjord. “Digital versus physical, human versus machine, centralized versus decentralized, speed versus craft, automation versus control, traceability versus anonymity. Winners in 2018 will be those who best navigate these tensions and seize the opportunity to collectively design the world we’ll be living in.”

Fjord Trends 2018 suggests how organisations can navigate these currents and design for positive change. It examines seven trends expected to shape the next generation of experiences:

– Physical fights back: Digital has had the limelight long enough – there are two brand experience headliners now. The time has come to blend the digital with the physical.

– Computers have eyes: As well as comprehending our words, computers now understand images without any help from us. Imagine the exciting possibilities for next-generation digital services.

– Slaves to the algorithm: How do you design a marketing strategy to win over the algorithms – immune to conventional branding efforts – that sit between brands and their customers?

– A machine’s search for meaning: A.I. might change our jobs, but need not eliminate them. We can – and should – design our collaboration with the machines that will help us develop.

– In transparency we trust: Blockchain has the potential to create transparency that will clear the fog of Internet ambiguity, regain lost trust, and repair relationships with the public.

– The ethics economy: Organisations are feeling the heat to take stands on political and societal hot button issues, whether they want to or not. And consumers are speaking with their dollars, choosing brands that align with their core beliefs.

– Design outside the lines: Design’s rapid ascendancy and newfound respect within organizations is a win for all. But, in a world in which everyone thinks they’re a designer, today’s practitioners need to evolve – how they work, learn, and differentiate themselves – if they are to continue having impact.

Said Baiju Shah, global co-lead, Fjord and managing director, Accenture Interactive: “We believe this edition of Trends will provoke and inspire but, above all, provide actionable advice for organizations to prepare for the opportunities ahead. Many of the thorny questions ahead of us revolve around human-machine interactions, the consequences of which will be profound for individuals, society and organisations of all kinds. As digital fades from being stand-alone to being embedded in our physical world, our relationships with everything around us will be redefined.”